Hong Kong's banking regulator will double the number of staff in its anti-money laundering team, in response to the demands of new legislation and recent high-profile cases involving local banks, sources told Compliance Complete. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), which also functions as the territory's de facto central bank, is expected to announce the staff increases early next week, the sources said. This would increase the team responsible for the supervision of AML at banks in the territory to 22 people, enabling them to cope with an increased workload. The team is headed up by Stewart McGlynn, senior manager (AML) in the Banking Supervision department. The decision to expand the team was communicated to top management at banks in Hong Kong at an "attend-or-explain" meeting called by the regulator last week, a source said.
The planned staff increase is likely to have been sparked by the greater amount of supervisory work which the regulator will need to carry out under Hong

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